Rapper Pharrell To Launch New Social Media Platform For Artists

Hip-hop performer and entrepreneur extraordinaire Pharrell Williams (pictured) is expanding his empire to incorporate a new social media program that is geared toward folks who are in the arts, such as musicians, filmmakers, and designers, reports Variety.

The new content-driven venture, “i am Other,” is said to be patterning itself after the mega-popular social media king Facebook, among others.

The lead vocalist and drummer of the famed hip-hop group N.E.R.D. named his latest Internet business after his record label, which he founded last August, and partnered with entertainment producer United Entertainment Group.

Watch Pharrell talk art, style, and fashion here:

The website will produce and distribute content and also tap in to new commerce models, such as Gilt and Groupon, which have been wildly successful by drawing on the social networking aspect of Facebook and Twitter.

The website, which is targeting 16- to- 25-year-olds, is being described as a “cultural movement” by the Grammy Award-winning entertainer. “We’d like i am Other to serve as a giant magnet, attracting the most creative individuals who share our view of things,” says Jarrod Moses, prexy-CEO of United Entertainment Group, which is backed by United Talent Agency. “We will find those people and tell their stories in a way that inspires others to dream bigger and go further,” Moses told Variety.

Pharrell was motivated to start the website because of the way folks are now choosing to document their lives via their phones or on Facebook. He tells Variety, “The first installment [of i am Other] is about delivering those experiences through products, excursions, anything that is tangible to a human that can make their life easier,” Williams said. “A lot companies claim they can make the world better. We want to make lives easier and unlock what normally would seem impossible, possible.”

In the meantime and in-between time, Pharrell and Lupe Fiasco are reportedly working on a collaboration album set to be released sometime in 2012.